I'm not one from the Sir Alex Ferguson bandwagon, but he seems to have figured out this leadership thing. So like Steve Jobs, his track record has called for study. And here's his secret to leadership http://hbr.org/2013/10/fergusons-formula/

Worth the length of the post, don't you think?


1. Start with the Foundation
From the moment I got to Manchester United, I thought of only one thing: building a football club. I wanted to build right from the bottom. Winning a game is only a short-term gain—you can lose the next game. Building a club brings stability and consistency. I always take great pride in seeing younger players develop. The job of a manager, like that of a teacher, is to inspire people to be better.


2. Dare to Rebuild your Team
Although I was always trying to disprove it, I believe that the cycle of a successful team lasts maybe four years, and then some change is needed. So we tried to visualize the team three or four years ahead and make decisions accordingly. The hardest thing is to let go of a player who has been a great guy—but all the evidence is on the field. If you see the change, the deterioration, you have to ask yourself what things are going to be like two years ahead.


3. Set High Standards-and hold everyone to them
Everything we did was about maintaining the standards we had set as a football club—this applied to all my team building and all my team preparation, motivational talks, and tactical talks. For example, we never allowed a bad training session.

I had to lift players’ expectations. They should never give in. I said that to them all the time: “If you give in once, you’ll give in twice." I constantly told my squad that working hard all your life is a talent. But I expected even more from the star players. I expected them to work even harder.


4. Never, Ever Cede Control
“You can’t ever lose control—not when you are dealing with 30 top professionals who are all millionaires. And if any players want to take me on, to challenge my authority and control, I deal with them. Before I came to United, I told myself I wasn’t going to allow anyone to be stronger than I was. Your personality has to be bigger than theirs. That is vital.”

An important part of maintaining high standards across the board was Ferguson’s willingness to respond forcefully when players violated those standards. If they got into trouble, they were fined. And if they stepped out of line in a way that could undermine the team’s performance, Ferguson let them go. In 2005, when long-time captain Roy Keane publicly criticized his teammates, his contract was terminated. The following year, when United’s leading scorer at the time, Ruud van Nistelrooy, became openly disgruntled over several benchings, he was promptly sold to Real Madrid.

Responding forcefully is only part of the story here. Responding quickly, before situations get out of hand, may be equally important to maintaining control.


5. Match the Message to the Moment
No one likes to be criticized. Few people get better with criticism; most respond to encouragement instead. So I tried to give encouragement when I could. For a player—for any human being—there is nothing better than hearing “Well done.” Those are the two best words ever invented. You don’t need to use superlatives.

At the same time, in the dressing room, you need to point out mistakes when players don’t meet expectations. That is when reprimands are important. I would do it right after the game. I wouldn’t wait until Monday. I’d do it, and it was finished. I was on to the next match. There is no point in criticizing a player forever.


6. Prepare to Win
Ferguson was both unusually aggressive and unusually systematic about his approach. He prepared his team to win. He had players regularly practice how they should play if a goal was needed with 10, five, or three minutes remaining.

"Winning is in my nature. I’ve set my standards over such a long period of time that there is no other option for me—I have to win. If we were down at halftime, the message was simple: Don’t panic. Just concentrate on getting the task done. If we were still down—say, 1–2—with 15 minutes to go, I was ready to take more risks. I was perfectly happy to lose 1–3 if it meant we’d given ourselves a good chance to draw or to win."


7. Rely on the Power of Observation
Ferguson increasingly delegated the training sessions to his assistant coaches. But he was always present, and he watched. The switch from coaching to observing, he told us, allowed him to better evaluate the players and their performances. “As a coach on the field, you don’t see everything,” he noted. A regular observer, however, can spot changes in training patterns, energy levels, and work rates.

"The key is to delegate the direct supervision to others and trust them to do their jobs, allowing the manager to truly observe."


8. Never Stop Adapting
In Ferguson’s quarter of a century at United, the world of football changed dramatically, from the financial stakes involved to the science behind what makes players better.

"One of the things I’ve done well over the years is manage change. I believe that you control change by accepting it. That also means having confidence in the people you hire. The minute staff members are employed, you have to trust that they are doing their jobs. If you micromanage and tell people what to do, there is no point in hiring them. The most important thing is to not stagnate. Most people with my kind of track record don’t look to change. But I always felt I couldn’t afford not to change."

It takes greatness to achieve all the above consistently

Very good read..

Which makes me want to ask, what is our dear David Moyes doing wrong?

This should be a sticky on every thread.

The part of ceeding control I can attest to.